Films by Larry Foley

2018

Make Room for Pie-one hour public TV program featuring cafes and diners where delicious, homemade pies are baked to culinary perfection. March, 2018, AETN.

2017The Favored Strawberry - one-hour documentary. Filmed in 8 states, this is the story of strawberry growing in America. Once a seasonal fruit, strawberries are desired and available year round, from winter fields in Plant City, Florida to sweeping ranches in a valley along the shores of Monterrey Bay, California. They’re grown on the windy plains of Texas and in the dirt of old Carolina tobacco plantations, on flint rock hillsides in Oklahoma and on You-Pick-farms in New Jersey, and lots of places in between. No matter the size of the crop, from massive coastal farms to small family fields, strawberries are still picked by hand….one by one, often by hard working immigrants chasing the American dream. Narrated by Academy Award winner Ray McKinnon. Nominated for Mid America Emmys for writing, cultural documentary, photography and musical score. Distributed Nationally to PBS stations by NETA, November 2017.

2015-16The First Boys of Spring - one-hour documentary film. Beginning in 1886, baseball spring training was held for the first time, not in Florida or Arizona, but in the Arkansas resort town of Hot Springs, and that’s where the annual rite caught on. For parts of eight decades, many of the best who ever played the game, came to Hot Springs to shake off the rust from winters of sedentary indulgence to prepare for long seasons ahead, with such teams as the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Pirates—and the Negro League’s Monarchs, Crawfords and Grays. Narrated by Academy Awarding winner Billy Bob Thornton. Premier: Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, October 10, 2015. MLB Network national broadcast premier: February 13, 2016. Presented at 21st Baseball in Literature and Culture Conference, Ottawa University, April 1, 2016. Presented at Black Archives of Mid-America, Kansas City, April 2, 2016. Screened at 28th Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, National Baseball Hall of Fame, June 3, 2016. Fox Sports multiple broadcasts Summer 2016. Best of Competition Award, Festival of Media Arts-Broadcast Education Association, 2016. Silver Award Eureka Springs Human Rights Film Festival, 2016. Screened in Little Rock, Fayetteville, Ft Smith, Mena, Rogers, Benton, Eureka Springs, Hot Springs, AR

2013-14After the Tsunami - documentary on Indonesian students sent to American universities to learn and return home to rebuild the “human capital” in their home country, following the 2004 Tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people. Their education was funded by money raised by former presidents George H W Busch and Bill Clinton. Screened at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and Peace on Earth Film Festival. Gold Award for Best Documentary, Eureka Springs Indie Fest; Award of Excellence, Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts; Mid-America Emmy nomination for Writer-Program/Program Feature. Best Documentary, Offshoot Film Festival; NETA national distribution to PBS stations, February 2015.

2012The Art of Crystal Bridges - documentary about the galleries and building of the first new museum of American art to be founded in a half a century. Narrated by Academy Award winning actress Mary Steenburgen. Premiered AETN November 9, 2012. Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Best of Festival Award, Festival of Media Arts (1,250 entries). Screened at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Distributed to PBS stations on NETA Access. Mid-America Emmy nominations for music and photography. Bronze Award-Eureka Springs Indie Fest.Up Among the Hills, the Story of Fayetteville: one-hour documentary on the history of Fayetteville, AR. Narrated by President Bill Clinton. Premiered at Fayetteville Public Library, October 19, 2012. Screened at Hot Springs, Little Rock, Trail Dance and Offshoot Film Festivals (Offshoot Best Documentary Award) Nominated for three Mid-America Emmys. City of Fayetteville Historic Preservation Award. Winner of Mid America Emmy for Music; Nominations for photography and editing. Best Feature Documentary, Audience Choice and Director’s Choice nominations at Trail Dance Film Festival.

Growing Hope - 30-minute documentary film on the resurrection of Arkansas Baptist College. This historically Black school, located in a notorious Little Rock urban neighborhood, has come back from near bankruptcy, due to the leadership of its dynamic president, Fitz hill, a former football coach. Enrollment is up, crime is down and the neighborhood is being restored. Narrated by T.J. Holmes of ABC News. Winner of Mid-America Emmy, Special Program and nominated for Writer/Program. Premiered at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, October 2012.

2011Bridge to War Eagle - 30-minute documentary film on Arkansas stream, framed around historic bridge and grist mill—site of one of state’s most picturesque and iconic scenes. Narrated by country music star Joe Nichols of Rogers, AR. Winner of Mid-America Emmy for best Cultural Documentary. Winner of War Eagle Steward Award. Aired on AETN. BEA Award of Excellence. Screened at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

2009Sacred Spaces, The Architecture of Fay Jones - One hour documentary film on acclaimed Arkansas architect. Premiered April 2009 at dedication of Fay Jones School of Architecture at University of Arkansas. AETN broadcast premiere: March 2010. Broadcast Education Association Best of Festival Award, Mid-America Emmy nomination for Best Cultural Documentary. Aired on AETN, and nationally distributed by National Educational Telecommunications Association.

The Greatest Coach-Ever! - 30-minute documentary film on the life and career of former University of Arkansas Track Coach John McDonnell. AETN Broadcast Premiere: March 2010.

2008The Buffalo Flows - story of the nation’s first national river (56:46). PBS national premiere: October 6, 2009. Mid-America Emmy for Best Writer-Program and Best Musical Score. Mid-America Emmy nominations: Cultural Documentary, Photography/Program. Broadcast Education Association Award of Excellence, 2009, 2010 CommunicatorAwards: Award of Excellence

2006Charles Banks Wilson - Portrait of an American Artist. Premiere: Fall 2006, AETN and OETA. Screened at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa. Story of 88-year old artist, and the people he has known and painted. NETA national broadcast distribution to PBS stations: April 2007. (30-minutes) Mid-America Emmy Award for Best Cultural Documentary, 2007. Best Documentary Short award, Trail Dance Film Festival, 2008.

2005Echoes of Inspiration - A film by Larry Foley and Dale Carpenter, produced for the University of Arkansas. Winner of BEA Award of Excellence and Special Technical Merit.

200422 Straight! - 71 minute film about the stories surrounding the Arkansas Razorback football team’s 22 game winning streak, 1963-66. Released on DVD in August 2004. Selected for screening at opening of William Clinton Library on November 17, 2004. Two DVD set also includes Foley interview with Frank Broyles, on Broyles’ 46 years career at Arkansas.

The Flight of Glacier Girl - 52-minute film premiered on Arkansas Educational Television. This film is the story of the first flight of a P-38 WW II fighter plane dug out of Greenland ice cap in 1992.

2003It Started Here, Early Arkansas and the Louisiana Purchase - 30-minute documentary that begins at initial survey point for Louisiana Purchase and tells story of Arkansas history, circa 1800-1836. AETN premiere: May 2003. National distribution: August 2003 by NETA. Presented at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

2002The Forgotten Expedition - story of Dunbar and Hunter, two explorers hired by Thomas Jefferson to explore southern part of Louisiana Purchase in 1804. AETN premiere: Fall 2002. National: August 2003 by NETA. Presented at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

Imagine, Inquire, Impart - film documenting the traditions, teaching, research and future of the University of Arkansas.

2001Sanatorium Hill - story of the survivors of the TB Sanatorium at Booneville, Arkansas, once among the largest in the world. Broadcast on Arkansas Educational Television Network. Presented at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Accepted for broadcast by South Carolina ETV for new series, Southern Lens, in 2004.

2000When Lightning Struck, Saga of an American Warplane - 30-minute television documentary that tells the story of the rarest of all the WWII fighters, the P-38 Lightning, through the heroism of the men who flew the plane called the "fork-tailed devil.” AETN Premiere: May 2000. PBS distribution: January 2001. Presented at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

1999Arkansas' Natural Heritage - 30-minute public television documentary that explores prairies, rivers, swamps and waterfalls that have been preserved the way they appeared to the first European explorers, untouched by human hands. Narrated by former U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers. AETN Premiere: January 28, 1999. National broadcast premiere (NETA) May 8, 1999.

1998Saving the Eagles - 30-minute public television documentary about the mystery of the largest die off of bald eagles in American history. Premiered on AETN, March 1998. National broadcast by PBS, The Public Broadcasting Service, November 8, 1998.

1997The Lost Squadron - 30-minute public television documentary about a World War II squadron, lost in a fog, that crash landed on the Greenland ice cap in 1942. Fifty years later, one of the P-38 fighter planes was dug out of 268 feet of ice and is being restored in the Cumberland Gap of Kentucky. Premiered on AETN, October 1997. National broadcast by PBS, April 12 and May 31, 1999. Presented at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

Out of the Woods - 30 minute public television documentary about the history and importance of the forest industry in Arkansas. Features industrial, private and public forests, and history of Ozark and Ouachita National Forests. Premiered on AETN, September 1997.

1995The Black Swamp - 60-minute television documentary/video research program on east Arkansas wetland. Shot over four seasons on the Cache River in east Arkansas, the program takes a look at some of the most extensive research conducted at a bottomland hardwood forest. AETN broadcast: October 1995. Distributed nationally, via satellite, to PBS stations by Southern Educational Communications Association (SECA), March 31,1996.

The Keetoowahs Come Home - 30-minute television documentary on Native American tribe attempting to leave Oklahoma and return to ancestral land in Arkansas. AETN broadcast: November 1995. National satellite distribution to PBS stations via SECA: April 1996.

The Governor from Greasy Creek - 60-minute documentary/interview with former Arkansas Governor Orval E. Faubus, infamous for attempting to block the desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School in 1957. Aired on AETN days before Faubus died.

1993Amber Waves - 13-part public television series (30-minute programs) featuring some of the best human interest stories by producers from around the nation. Distributed to public TV stations nationally by SECA in 1993.

Other films by Larry Foley - Natural Wild and Free, The Ernie Deane Story, Hell on the Border, Arkansas-A Special Place, The Razorbacks-A Winning Tradition, Bend in the Big River, The Conway Story, The Little Rock Story and the Pine Bluff story.